Railway rail joint



June 7, 1949.

ca. A. STANDFAST RAILWAI RAIL JOINT Filed Sept. 19, 1947 GEORGE A.sum-745T Patented June 7, i949 UNITED STATES" PATENT OFFICE BA B L O VGeorge A. Standfast, eiferson City, Mo.

Application September 19, 1947, Serial No. 775,100

This invention relates to arailway rail joint, and particularly to suchjoints of the type known as a scarf joint. A I

Scarf and lap joints for railway construction have been heretoforeproposedior the purpose of minimizing the jolting which .occurs atcommon butt joints when one rail has moved to a position slightly higheror lower than the rail to which it is joined.

Although such constructions have long since been proposed, they have notproved to be satisfactory in service for many reasons. They have tendedto weaken the rails at a critical point, and where it has been sought toremedy this fact by introducing reinforcing elements at the joints, theconstruction has become complicated, and the cost prohibitive. For theseand other reasons, the common butt joint has remained the standardpractice in railway construction.

It is among the objects of the present invention to overcome thedifficulties heretofore encountered in railway rail joints of the typeto which the invention relates, and provide a joint of the scarf or laptype which is simple in construction, and which will leave the rail atthe joint fully as strong as the common butt joint.

The foregoing and other objects and features of the invention will bemade fully apparent to those skilled in the art from a consideration ofthe following detailed description taken in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a rail joint constructed in accordancewith the present invention;

Figure 2 is a longitudinal cross-section through a rail joint;

Figure 3 is a top plan view of the same;

Figure 4 is a transverse cross-section taken on the line 4-4 of Figure3;

Figure 5 is a detail top plan view of a fragmentary portion of the railjoint showing the manner of dressing the pointed ends of the rail head;

Figure 6 is an elevation of a fragmentary portion of a rail furthershowing the manner of dressing the flange end of the rail head; and

Figure 7 is a transverse cross-section on the line l---! of Figure 3showing the manner in which a car or locomotive wheel contacts theimproved rail joint.

In the drawings, reference numerals l0 and II indicate rail sectionswhich are joined in accordance with the present invention. The railsections In and II are common type T-rails, each having a flange l2, 9.web 13, and a head M. The

1 Claim. (01. 23 -230) ends of each rail are out 01f at an angle ofapproximately 45 in a plane substantially perpendicular to the bottomsurface of the flange, the

cuts being always made in the same direction, so,

that if one of the rails, for example II, .were turned around, itsopposite end would still match with the end of the rail ID, as shown.The two railsections so out are joined by means of a pair ofconventional fishplates l5, one on each side of the web I3, and bolts Itextend through the fish plates and through suitable openings in the'webI3 to be secured at their threaded endsby nuts 11. It will be observedthat at the center ofthe rails, the gap between the two railsectionslies equidistant between the two adjacent inner'bolts andthat atthe outer surfaces ofjthe web I3 the ends of the gap, while lying closerthe inner bolts [6, will nevertheless be well spaced from such bolts.Each of the bolts It extends through only one of the rail sections 10 orII and the 45 degree or miter cut on the ends of the rails keeps thetension forces on bolts I5 within safe limits under rail expansionconditions since at least half of the expansion force is carrieddirectly by the rail ends.

The tip of each rail head I4 is dressed off, as indicated at l8 to aninwardly tapered condition. The taper extends for a distance of aboutfiveeighths inch in the direction of the length of the rail head at itsdeepest portion, and is about oneeighth inch deep at the end of the railhead. The taper extends around the curved edge of the top of the railhead, as illustrated in Figure 5, and downwardly along the side of thehead M to, but not below, the inwardly curving oval edge at the bottomthereof as illustrated in Figure 6, the broken line in this figureindicating the original extent of the toe portion of the rail head endbefore inwardly tapered as shown in full lines. Figure 7 illustrates themanner in which the wheels and wheel flanges cooperate with the improvedrail joint. The inwardly tapered portions IB prevent the pointed end ortoe a. of one rail end from projecting outwardly beyond the heel b ofthe adjacent rail end, even when the rails are under a condition ofmaximum expansion, so that the tips of the toe portions are not bent orchipped by the pressure of the wheel flanges c thereon, as is clearlyshown in Figure 7. The taper thus provided on the toe portion of a railhead end extends around the upper rounded edge and down the inner sideof the head over the area of the head tip subject to contact by thewheel flange, but does not extend beyond this area in order that thetaper will not require the removal of any more 3 meta1 than isabsolutely necessary from the rail head.

While, for convenience in assembling the rails, all of the rail head toeportions may be tapered, it is necessary to taper only those toeportions at that side of a connected rail assembly facing the parallelrail assembly of a two-rail track.

The toe or corner portions of the rail flanges I 2 are cut back forabout one inch to remove the sharp points and render the rails easierand safer to handle.

In use, the construction above described presents numerous advantagesover rail joints of the scarf type, as heretofore proposed. By makingthe cut at the end of each rail section at an angle of about 45, thelapping portions of the two rail sections are much shorter than in priorconstructions. The cut does not extend through any of the bolt holes inthe webs of the rails, and thus the rails are not weakened at thiscritical point. When the rails expand in hot weather, the two railsections may come into abutment with little or no wedging action of theoverlapping portions against the fish plates. made at a higher angle,the lapping portion of one rail functions as a wedge, acting to pry thefish plate outwardly from the rail. In the present construction, theangle at which the cut is made is sufficient to attain the advantages oflap on scarf joints, but is below the angle at which the rails willslide upon each other after expansion into abutting relation, and thusthe objectionable wedging action is reduced. At the same time wheelpressure and other factors may cause adjacent rail ends to movelaterally relative to each other and by inwardly tapering the toeportions Where these cuts are of the rail heads the tips of the toeportions are made stronger and do not at any time project outwardlybeyond the adjacent rail head heel portions and are thus protected fromdamage by the wheel flanges regardless of the direction of trafiic onthe rails.

Having thus described the invention, I claim:

In a scarf-joint, railway rail comprising a flange, a web and a railhead having upper and lower rounded edges, said rail having its endsurfaces disposed in respective planes substantially perpendicular tothe bottom surface of said flange and inclined substantially 45 to thelongitudinal center line of the rail, and said rail head havin at eachend thereof an acute toe and having on its outer side at the end of eachtoe a surface inclined upwardly and inwardly from the bottom curved edgeof said side to a location disposed inwardly of the adjacent uppercurved edge and inclined outwardly from the end of said toe to thesurface of'said side ata location spaced from the end of said toe.

GEORGE A. STANDFAST.

REFERENCES CITED The followi ngreferences are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Italy Dec. 13, 1937

